Two Top Restaurateurs Hope Promos, Value, and Damned Good Food Get Them Through

Restaurateurs tend to be a fairly optimistic lot. After all, a positive attitude is practically a requirement to enter a business that's perpetually overbuilt, where profit margins can be as thin as Sarah Palin's résumé.

New Times talked to a pair of local restaurateurs whose longtime success in their markets is no accident -- Johnny Vinczencz (of Johnny V's and Smith & Jones) and Burt Rapoport (of Henry's and Bogart's). And although they recognize the difficulties of the present, they're also pretty confident of enduring and prospering. Below is an excerpt of their responses.

New Times: How has the crappy economy affected the local restaurant industry?

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Vinczencz: Obviously the economy of the whole nation is down. It affects tourism; it affects business. People aren't spending as much money. They're still

going out, but instead of going out Tuesday and Thursday and the

weekend, they're just going out on Saturday. And they're being more

frugal.

Rapoport: I think the softness [in the South

Florida market] is pretty much across the board. Chains are cutting

back on their expansion; some of them are closing units. Certainly

mom-and-pop operators are having a hard time too. I was thinking that

higher-end restaurants were more susceptible to a downturn, but if you

look at Boca, there are seven steak houses there, and they all seem to

be maintaining. So maybe people are not going out as often, but when

they go out, they want to spend some money and have a good time.

What are restaurateurs doing to keep people coming back?

Vinczencz:

We're doing a lot of promos, prix fixe menus, getting creative with the

food. One of the upsides [of the downturn] is that chefs are finding

creative ways to use cheaper ingredients, cheaper cuts of meat, and

making them just as tasty.

Rapoport: The biggest thing

ultimately is the customer's perception of value -- when they walk out

the door, they feel like they got their money's worth, whether they

spent $200 a couple or $40 a couple. It's more than just price point;

it's the quality of food, ambiance, and service.

Will the comfort-food fad stick around? And is it hurting cutting-edge cuisine?

Vinczencz:

There will always be a place for comfort-food restaurants, more

affordable restaurants. You're seeing a lot of chefs now using their

creativity not only at the high end; they're doing comfort food but

putting their own spin on it. But if I were going to open a restaurant

tomorrow, I would be very cautious about doing anything cutting-edge,

especially in a town like Fort Lauderdale.

Rapoport:

When people are going out to eat these days, they're not looking for

challenges. They're looking for reliability and familiarity, so any

restaurateur needs to be careful about doing the kind of food where

customers don't know what they're eating.

South Florida is just now jumping on the local, organic, sustainable food bandwagon. Is the bad economy going to stall it?

Vinczencz:

Organics is not a trend; it's a way of eating. It's definitely a

movement. There's a few guys here doing it well, but there needs to be

a lot of work done from farm to table to make it easier for not just

chefs and restaurateurs to get local products but for the average

person.

Rapoport: There's certainly a trend of eating

healthier, cleaner, and I think it's something that will continue

growing. And I think people will be willing to pay for it.

Is the whole "restaurant as entertainment" thing making a comeback?

Vinczencz:

The clientele who go out dining and the clientele who go out to party

and eat are two different clienteles. There's definitely a market for

that, that all-in-one package, but I don't think more restaurants like

mine will try entertainment. It's just a really different thing.

Rapoport:

That [entertainment] has to be developed in the planning stages of a

restaurant. But incorporating activities, entertainment, action,

merchandising into a concept is certainly back. I think it's going to

be a vital component of successful restaurants in the future. But your

"entertainment" could be a wood-burning oven, a mozzarella bar, a

rotisserie or sushi station.

There's a lot of opportunity

to do things like that that reinforce the quality of the food. What do

you see in our restaurant future?

Vinczencz: The

biggest fear is that the season won't come next year. It doesn't have

to be the best season ever. But if it isn't better, a lot of

restaurants are going to have to make some very hard decisions. There's

definitely going to be a shakeout. The good restaurants will survive,

and the ones that aren't, won't. But you can't rule anything out. No

one is safe -- that's the cold, hard fact. All we can do is be as

creative as possible and hope things get better.

Rapoport:

You read in the papers that the recession ended and we're on the

rebound, but I think it's going to take a long time before it reaches

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